The guy that runs Blue Belly BBQ's Twitter account must have taken the same hospitality courses as the guy that runs Mac's Tavern's Facebook page. They're both ridiculously unprofessional and out of line.

Leaving a review after having actually visited at the restaurant and giving an accurate assessment of all aspects of the visit. I can't believe the stupidity of these business owners for attacking their patrons.

Hi Chris,
I know it might not make a difference to email, but I am feeling better doing it. I actually agree witheveryone. I came unhinged last night. I was super, beyond, stressed and did a stupid thing. I apologized privately to Allison and in my opinion she has been so gracious - she's barely commented at all, which I appreciate. I understand you may never return. I realize that the internet is tough and I need to avoid it - have deleted apps from my phone. I learned several lessons in this. Thanks for listening. Hope you know it's sincere.
BB BBQ

My girlfriend his a sous chef for a small, recently opened restaurant, and I can understand how reviews can upset the owners/ chefs. However, there is never any reason to respond in this way, no matter how bad you may want to. The best thing is to either ignore it, try to actually remedy whatever complaints the negative reviewer had, or respond in a professional manner. Negative reviews can be bad for business, but being an asshole can be even worse.

What really boggles me is how whoever is behind the Blue Belly BBQ Twitter connects the dots between:

"Meh review." to "You're ugly." (In so many words)

How the fuck does that even connect for anyone out of middle school? They can be sensitive all the want the reviewer could have been out of her damned mind (like many distrungled Yelpers tend to be sometimes) but in no way does calling the woman ugly even begin to compute.

Negative reviews happen all the time and no one is expecting chefs or restaurant owners to be emotionless or perfect angels. But there's a better way to address criticism of your business and approach customer service. Take, for example, Federal Donuts. They have crazies every single week bitching about the hours, the high demand, how they always sell out, calling them "hipster chicken" on Yelp, and even some crazy chick who posted a 200-word rant on their Facebook a few weeks ago about how she drove from Long Island to get chicken (without calling or checking the hours) and got there after 2 p.m. when they had sold out. How do they respond? With kindness and dignity, always.

The restaurant industry is full of people with delicate egos and high tempers, but few seem to remember that a satisfied customer will tell 2-3 people about her positive experience, while a dissatisfied customer will share their woes with 8-10.

I agree wholeheartedly. Taking the criticism constructively is a good way of minimizing a bad review, and perhaps spinning it into a positive.

Imagine if Blue Belly had responded: "We appreciate the compliments on our service and are glad that your friend enjoyed his food. But we're sorry that you didn't enjoy your sandwich. Rest assured that we are devoted to making the best possible customer experience and we take these criticisms very seriously. You are helping us to better serve our customers as we grow. We hope you give us the chance to make a more favorable second impression."

If I read that response, I probably go out of my way to eat here because they would seem like nice people who care about their customers. But because they responded in a juvenile manner, there's no way I'll ever give them any business, and I'll proactively tell my friends to do the same.

A local coffee joint opened up near me recently and my first review was 3 stars, with details of why it was 3 and my high hopes that they'd get the bugs worked out and become a 4 or more star place.

The owner sent me a message on Yelp thanking me for the input and saying he hoped subsequent visits would be better. That's how criticism should be handled, and his positive attitude made a very good impression, and I've been back several times because of it (and the issues I had mentioned have been greatly improved).

What really grinds my gears about this place (and any place at this point) is how can they NOT take credit cards? That's fucking ridiculous. Square is free and takes less than 3% off the top. Fuck these guys.

credit cards charge a fee per transaction. probably dont want to risk losing more money for something that they dont need. lots of places in the city still dont accept credit cards (la viola and dmitris on 3rd dont)

This is my biggest complaint in Philly. So many cash only spots. Card minimums I understand. But it feels like disrespecting a customer to make them eat a $3 ATM charge 'cause you don't feel like it, when they're planning to give you money. Especially at restaurants that can hit upward of $50 for a meal.

I've worked in a few restaurants (not as a cook), and the general idea is that if you're pissed about a customer, you bitch to your coworkers. NOT other customers. In fact, as a customer, if an employee bitched TO me, I'd never go back for fear they're talking about me after I leave.

But generally, if your food is meh, ask them how to improve the food. Good Customers want good food places to succeed. Bad food places don't generally get the chance to improve, as most customers will just not come back without notice.

I absolutely agree with you. I've worked in restaurants my whole life, and honestly some of the stuff people write on yelp can go way too far and can be extremely nit picky especially for small business owned restaurants. Some lady actually didn't like the fact that we put ice cream in plastic bowls and gave us one star for it! like REALLY? Would you like to pay for us to use paper instead? Or give you a ceramic bowl you can't take with you?? Some people do take it too far and think that they are the ultimate restaurant critics, let alone food critics. However, her review was simple and to the point. I expected to see something totally different for this backlash. You really need to learn to take the punches in this industry and this was hardly a scratch in my opinion. Some of the reviews I've seen for the restaurant I've worked in for the past 4 years are beyond ridiculous, but you let it slide knowing that there are plenty of people that enjoy what you're doing for the others that don't. Yelp is honestly just a tool for restaurants on how NOT to piss off customers, not how to improve their food in my opinion because a lot of what people write is just based off of their own tastes, not legitimate food critiquing. Some do offer up constructive criticism, like this post, but yelp is honestly entertainment for those of us in the restaurant business.

I don't really want to say where I work, but here is the review. And she was actually complaining about paper cups, which we don't even use. We must have been out of the plastic cups and had to put it in a pint cup which holds MORE ice cream than the plastic cups.

"Seriously I love desserts so it doesn't take much to get a great rating out of me, but seriously? You serve my ice cream in a cheap paper cup? All four scoops fit into a 16 oz's paper cup and we were given a cheap spoon to work with. Never minding the situation I sat down on one of the sofas to relax and enjoy our dessert with the hubby only to see spilled dried crusted ice cream on various locations of the sofa and the table infront of us. We switched sofas, but the experience was once again ruined by the cheap papercup and plastic spoons. The service did not exceed my expectations and I would never return again."

Again, nothing about the food, or whether the ice cream was good. Complaining about a dirty table and a spot on the couch (my number one pet peeve is when people sit at a dirty table that hasn't been cleaned yet and then complain about it when there is a clean table two feet from you.), and the stuff your ice cream was served in. I mean come on really?!?!

Also, the couch is cleaned every day, and wiped down once an hour, if someone is sitting there before we get to it and there's ice cream on it i'm sorry but spills happen. If you would like it cleaned I'll gladly wipe it off for you that moment.

edit: conveniently enough, I went back to look through this specific persons other reviews, and their nickname on yelp (that i assume she gave herself) is "The Drama Queen". Figures.

My boyfriend's old roommate is a chef at Devon in Rittenhouse. He said that for awhile the company (it's corporate) was thinking about actually penalizing people that were specifically mentioned in YELP reviews or even if it was vague if they could figure out who the server/hostess/busser was they would dock pay or suspend them. They actually read the yelp reviews in staff meetings. I'm sorry, but yelp is NOT THAT SERIOUS. Any one can post a review there, and for the 100 people that are sane and write logical stuff, there are 1 million CRAZY people that don't even legitimately criticize or talk about anything related to the food they ate or the dining experience. They find one thing wrong, like a dirty napkin on the floor or a worker standing outside smoking a cigarette and they RUN with it. It is an outlet for people who love to get the last word on the internet, because most of the time the company won't respond or does and is overly apologetic (unlike in this case). A restaurant's main priority should be it's food and service, all the rest comes afterwards. A competent staff and a good menu are key and people who actually enjoy food and don't hate life will notice that above all else. Any person who can actually degrade another human being on a review website because they had a bad experience is a jerk.

Wouldn't the appropriate way for a restaurant to react to a somewhat lacking review be something that would further entice the customer to return? Criticism can suck, but there can be something to learn form it. This isn't the only time I've heard about a restaurant acting like a small child after receiving a less than favorable review.

The way a professional establishment might handle it would be to say "We're sorry you had a bad experience, If we give you a coupon for a buy one get one free, maybe you can come back and see if we can change your mind with a better experience" or something to that affect.

looked into it, since they're in my neighborhood. when your sandwiches start at $10, you should expect some criticism. what they did on yelp/twitter is no way to get a good reputation. either they're going through some stress from the opening or they're being run by mental patients, with a yahoo email address

not when I can get a banh mì for $3.50 right down the street. if it's a great sandwich, I don't blame their prices. but at that price, I'll wait for a bunch of recommendations before I try it. I wish I had a $10 sandwich for lunch income

I am a cook at a bar/restaurant that has got a few less than favorable reviews on yelp. Do you know what I do when I read them? I make sure that whatever the complaint, even if unreasonable, never happens again on during my shifts. If I see another cook doing something wrong or along the lines of the complainant's problem, I make sure it is done right before it goes out to my customers. I actually appreciate bad yelp reviews, because it gives me motivation to do better and always please every customer that walks in our door.

Oh hell, just look at the Hop Sing Laundromat page on Yelp. The owner (Lee) is a fucking tool who actually bans people if they give him less than 5 stars. He actually banned someone who gave him 4 stars until she would give him 5. Seriously??? Extorting positive reviews is stupid (but not as stupid as the idiots who so badly want to be part of his little club that they oblige.) He also tweets nasty things about patrons, making fun of them, and then deletes the tweet. The guy is a piece of work seriously not cut out for any type of service industry.

Sad thing is the place itself is really nice and has a cool interior and would be a great hang-out, if not for the owner.

I have zero interest in checking out Hop Sing Laudromat. That level of pretension and hipper-than-thou exclusivity shuts down my curiosity in an instant. Is it just me? I'm sure Lee has some kind of tracker on negative comments on the Internet, so now I'll never be let in. Oh well!

Amazing the amount of people that say he's either barred them from entering based on Yelp reviews or has told them to change their comments (from 4 to 5 stars) before they're allowed back.

I feel like everyone in the article is missing the point, she didn't like the food because it was her opinion, everyone has different tastes. She didn't say anything bad about the service, she said the food wasn't stellar to HER.

Part of me thinks this might be some sort of savvy reverse psychology marketing plan. Cause up a mild internet controversy. Let it settle. When people forget about it, they still have the name in the back of their mind. They then go to the shop.

Something I've noticed from working in small, privately owned restaurants and cafes. Often, the owners are totally freaking obsessed with the food. This can be a good thing. They tend to make good food because of it. But they also tend to get super butt-hurt if someone doesn't like it, or if they want their order modified in any way. Some of the people I've worked for have been to food as hipsters are to underground music. They think their word is law, that they are the coolest smartest most well informed people out there, and everyone else (including their customers) are just wrong.

If they were dumb enough to respond this way, the restaurant probably wouldn't have lasted that long anyway. They clearly don't understand that being in the SERVICE industry means eating shit some times to further your long term goals.

If you are unhappy with a customers subpar review, you don't bash them on twitter. Instead, you offer them some sort of compensation, apologize, and try to do better. No one is going to like everything especially not where food is concerned. Chalk it up to a learning experience, get mad about it off Twitter, and do better next time. Stupid move for a brand new business. This is the perfect example of what not to do.

Ha! You've hit the nail on the head man. It seems like if you're not a drama-loving hipster with instagram, a hip-hop head who loves the shitty neighborhoods, or a sports fanatic who hates philly parking, you're just not going to find anything relevant here, just scorn and skyline.

You'll want to avoid the tourist spots like independance hall, the rocky steps, boat house row, old city, south street, city hall, north philly, west philly, and all of New Jersey. Come hang on my couch this weekend....I've got four tickets to see "The You've Never Heard of Thems" perform in a toliet stall at Barcade. Anyone else going??